Climate change

View over the observatory with sunset and mountain top poking through the clouds in background

The US government’s greenhouse gas monitoring site at Mauna Loa in Hawaii has confirmed that its average recorded carbon dioxide levels for February topped 400 parts per million (ppm) – the first time that this has been seen in a northern winter month.

A network of floating data monitors across the world’s oceans has revealed a noticeable rise in temperature, particularly around Northern Australia, in as little as eight years – something that usually takes a lot longer to be recorded.

A team looking at the effect of a warming climate on the frequency and severity of La Niña events has found they are likely to be twice as frequent in future.